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Show 1875.] MR. J. W. CLARK ON EARED SEALS. 657 is very short, hard, and coarse; but its leather is thick and strong, and tbe oil prepared from its fat is as good as it is abundant. For both these reasons it would be highly advantageous to fish this animal, as also some other species of Seals of smaller size that are found together with the former in great numbers on these coasts, and which possess fur of good quality" (ii. p. 77). At an island called by the French Isle Eugene, in the Nuyts Archipelago, and which is, I believe, identical with the St.-Francis Island of Flinders and the English maps, he finds a new species " of the genus I have thought it right to establish under the name of Otaria. They attain the length of 8 to 9 feet, and are especially distinguished by a large white spot on the middle and upper surface of the neck: from this character I have described this new seal under the name of Otaria albicollis, N. Individuals of this beautiful species have their fore limbs closer together than the other amphibians (!) of the same family ; they are moreover far more active and less timid than the others " *. Captain Turnbull, writing in 1810-f*, mentions that "when the sealing flagged in some degree at Bass's Straits, they [the colonists] turned their attention to New Zealand, where the seals were known to abound. Every bay, creek, and river was examined by them ; and the fruit of their labour most amply recompensed them" (p. 505). . . " The intercourse between the colony of New South Wales and the Fejee Islands to the northward has been extremely active of late years. Several vessels fitted out at that colony obtained cargoes there amounting to 46,000 seal-skins" (p. 509) . . " In 1811 some resolute adventurers, in pursuit of new objects, penetrated as far as lat. 54° 45' S. and long 159° 42' E., where they discovered an island. . . which they named Macquarrie Island . . . . Some time previous to this another island had been discovered in the latitude of 52° 41' S., long. 169° E., which . . . . the discoverer named Campbell's Island. The first of these adventurers, and their immediate successors who arrived at Macquarrie Island, killed not less than 80,000 seals" (p. 515). The French expedition sent under Dumont D'Urville in the 'Astrolabe,' between the years 1826 and 1829, to the South Seas, coasted the soulh of Australia. Two species of Otaria have been described by the naturalists of the voyage t, Otaria cinerea and O. australis. As regards the Seals of the Aucklands I must refer to m y own paper, P.Z.S. 1873, p. 750. Lastly, the French Government having determined to send an expedition to Campbell Island § to observe the transit of Venus, an excellent naturalist, M . Filhol, was selected to accompany it. He * I.e. p. 118. "Ont les pieds anterieurs moins eloignes de la poitrine que la plupart des autres amphibies de la meme famille." t ' A Voyage round the World in the years 180C-1804,' by John Turnbull. Second edit. 4to, London, 1813, pp. 505 et. seq. X Zoologie, vol. i. pp. 89-99. § For an account of Campbell Island see Sir John Eoss's Antarctic Voyage, |